Towards Achieving Agility in Web-based Virtual Enterprises: A Decision-centric Approach

Virtual enterprises are groups of loosely connected companies, each
providing certain core competencies and working collaboratively towards
achieving a common objective. Agility of a web-based virtual enterprise refers
to its capability to successfully and rapidly adapt to changes in its operating
environment. Although, agility has been addressed in the literature with regard
to manufacturing processes and product requirements, design processes have
not been leveraged to address agility in web-based virtual enterprises. In this
paper, we present a strategy that involves (1) designing the design processes
along with products, (2) flexibility in the interfaces between different parts of a
virtual enterprise, (3) standardisation and (4) integrated modelling of processes
associated with all elements of a value chain. We propose a domain
independent decision-centric framework for modelling the value chain
processes. It allows a variety of stakeholders to structure, organise and model
processes using a common framework. It also balances the need for flexibility
of interfaces and the standardisation of information from individual
stakeholders, thereby providing adaptability to changes in the web-based
virtual enterprise.